Uttarakhand BJP chief weighed in coins

Bhatt said every BJP activist should try to pitch in with at least ₹1,000 in what the party calls ’Sahyog shulk’

Uttarakhand BJP president Ajay Bhatt was weighed in coins in Haldwani on Wednesday.(HT Photo)

The trend of weighing political leaders in money has also started in Uttarakhand. Recently, the BJP collected coins weighing 75kg – the body weight of party state unit president Ajay Bhatt.

BJP leaders said they had collected the money in small denominations from people of Rajpura and Haldwani. Later, the collected money was exchanged at a bank for coins.

On this occasion, Bhatt said every BJP activist should try to pitch in with at least ₹1,000 in “Sahyog shulk” or support funds.

The Congress has lashed out at the BJP for indulging in such tactics.

“Weighing a person in coins or valuable items is not justified and we oppose such show or money,” said Sumit Hridyesh, a Congress leader and the son of former cabinet Minister Indira Hridyesh.

Sumit said the Congress would never indulge in such acts. “Yes there are reports that the BJP activists are being pressurised in the name of ‘Sahyog shulk’ and this is a bad precedent,” he said.

He also alleged that the money used to weigh the BJP state president was not collected from the common people, but was provided by quarrying mafia.

Raghunath Singh Negi, a RTI activist, said the “Sahyog shulk” was aimed at collecting money for the coming Lok Sabha election.

“The party activists are being pressurised to give big amounts of money so that he party’s coffers can be filled up. The big industrialists are already paying huge sums of money and the petty activists are being troubled unnecessarily,” he said.

BJP state general secretary Gajraj Singh Bisht said party members were not being pressurised for money.